The French bank BNP Paribas has been put on notice by NGOs to stop its financial support for a Brazilian agrifood giant, which they accuse of contributing to deforestation, the grabbing of indigenous territories and forced labor, have- they announced Monday, October 17. “The Brazilian association Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) and the French association Notre Affaire À Tous (NAAT), supported by the North American NGO Rainforest Action Network, sent a formal notice to the French bank BNP Paribas in for its financial support of Marfrig, Brazil’s second-largest meatpacking company,” the statement said.
This formal notice, the first to target a bank, is the prerequisite for possible legal action by NGOs. Since 2017, the French law on “the duty of vigilance” requires large companies to take effective measures to prevent human rights and environmental abuses throughout their supply chain. According to the law, companies given formal notice have a period of three months to meet their obligations and possibly dialogue with NGOs.
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“More than 120,000 hectares of illegal deforestation”
The latter can then consider a summons before the Paris court. , citing an analysis by the Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA). “Marfrig has, directly and indirectly, sourced livestock from herders who illegally raised their animals on indigenous territories”, including Apyterewa, in the state of Pará
“Marfrig has also sourced livestock from farms involved in slavery-like practices, including forced labor and debt bondage,” the statement added. For Jérémie Suissa, general delegate of Notre Affaire À Tous, quoted in the press release, the banks “can no longer claim that they do not know that their financing (…) actively fuels climate chaos, the collapse of biodiversity, the ‘indigenous land grabbing and slavery-like practices’.
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“For the Amazon, BNP Paribas does not finance customers who produce or buy beef and soybeans in areas cleared or converted after 2008,” the group replied, asked by AFP. In the Cerrado, he says to require these criteria from January 1, 2020, “in accordance with global standards”. “BNP Paribas is the only international bank to have adopted such precise requirements in terms of the absence of deforestation and traceability”, further argues the bank. “In the event of possible misalignment, the group may decide to end a commercial relationship,” she adds, without however commenting on the accusations against Marfrig or its relationship with the Brazilian company.
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